Kagan rushed to his room. As he threw open the doors he saw Giselle laying in the bed with Dagaa leaning over her.
"Would you stay in this bed." Dagaa demanded.
Giselle tried to get up again.
"I just heard what happened." Rahela stood at the door looking shocked.
Giselle pushed her way past Dagaa and got up. Kagan nearly went through the roof as he looked at her swollen red eye and split lip. Her wrist was bound and bruise was forming all the way up her thigh.
"Oh my." Rahela gasped.
The look Giselle leveled at Rahela had the female backing out the door.
"JEEZELLE" Kagan said sternly. She was injured and stubbornly attempting to do more than she should. Giselle swung her eyes to Kagan and glared at him.
"Don't let my little mishap keep you from Rahela." She snarled.
Dagaa inched towards the door and closed it quietly behind him. Coward!
She was jealous!
Kagan realized he should've talked to Giselle about what was going on and what he'd been feeling long before now. It seemed that things kept getting in the way. Kagan moved towards Giselle.
"Keep back." Giselle threw up her hands.
Kagan couldn't stay put though. He had to touch her to examine every inch to assure himself Giselle was going to be okay. He stalked forward and took her in his arms.
"Let me go. I can't do this!" Giselle pounded at his chest with her good fist.
"NEVER." Kagan insisted. "You are mine. I will never let you go."
"I would rather die then stay on this planet and be forced to watch you with her. I refuse to be your dirty little secret behind closed doors and I refuse to be forced to constantly watch my back because your people think they can treat me like I'm less than trash." Giselle screamed at him then wilted in his arms."I'm not a thing you can possess." She keened brokenly.
Kagan was devastated by the anguish and pain that radiated off Giselle. He brushed the hair from her tear streaked abused face. He was ready to kill the male who had done this to her, and yet he wasn't completely innocent. He'd let Giselle go on thinking she was nothing more than a pet while he played the coward, worrying if she'd be accepted. And look where that led them.
For the first time he truly considered abandoning his duty to take Giselle with him and live in the wilds with her at his side. Nothing he could think of mattered so much as the woman he held. He just had to prove it to her.
Ismat's words from earlier came to him. He knew he was willing to sacrifice just about anything to prove to Kali how serious he was.
Kagan brushed his fingers across the conjugo mark on Giselle's neck.
"Jeezelle you are mine not because I own you." Kagan tipped her face up so he could look into her stunning blue eyes. He could get lost in those pools. "No one could ever own you. It would be like trying to capture the wind." Kagan sat on the bed cradling her in his lap. "When a Cadi warrior finds his true mate, he is driven to mark her here." Kagan touched the conjugo mark reverently. "Some try to force the bond, but a true bond goes deeper and is felt by both."
Giselle gasped and her hand rose to her neck. She must have felt the pull as well. It was often described as intoxicatingly pleasurable by Cadi females. Kagan smiled as he nuzzled her, taking in her scent.
"You have felt it?" Kagan husked into her ear.
Giselle nodded. "But what about Rahela?"
"I am sure she thinks I plan to mate her." Giselle stiffened up. "I am Rahela's Second. It was a promise I made to her mate. Many Second males take the female as a mate if they are widowed, however that is not required for me to uphold my promise. Not only does Rahela not interest me, but I already have a mate."
"Kagan." Giselle choked out the tears streaming down her flushed cheeks.
"Can you accept me even though I have been foolish and blind?"
Giselle nodded and Kagan gently kissed her. Giselle's good hand tangled in his hair holding him close. Kagan's heart soared.
"I worried about you not being accepted but this goes far beyond that." Kagan's hand moved along her marred cheek.
"You cannot make them accept me." Giselle said softly.
"Do you know who did this to you little warrior?" Kagan was livid. He needed to know.
"Kagan you can't seek revenge against every male who looks sideways at me." Giselle replied. He could tell that she knew who the dishonorable male was. "If I hadn't flipped him and kicked him in the shaft, he might not have been as pissed."
Kagan's eyes widened. Of course his little warrior fought back. But that did not excuse this level of abuse. Nothing did.
"Good he deserved it. Now tell me."
"You turned me over your knee more than once for being a bad pet." Giselle argued.